Natural flea/tick control?

[katmann]

We've started letting one of our cats outside due to her urinating outside her box, which we believe is due to our new baby (now 8 mos). Anyway, she's much happier having some outside time everyday, and she never strays. She'll even follow us around when we're outside with her. But I'm worried about ticks and fleas, and I don't want to use topical pesticides. Not only because of our baby, but because I've heard fleas and ticks have become quite resistant to those treatments. Is there any other way to protect her?

[greenmagick]

I'll just say, I was always against letting cats out. Recently, I began letting my one cat out because he always stayed right with us or slept in the garden. I figured it was fine, he wont stray..hes a very dependent cat so no biggie. Well, he disappeared on Monday.

Thankfully, we had a miracle today and he returned unscathed, but never again will I let him out "just for a bit".

[Pepper44]

I have one cat who spends all day outside. She was a stray before animal control picked her up, so she's not accustomed to being inside 24/7. I worry about her a lot, and she's gotten injured before, but I think of it this way...either she's locked inside and unhappy, or she's outside living out her life and being a happy cat. I would rather her be happy, even if it means the heartbreak of losing her.

I have two other cats who absolutely aren't allowed outside. One is fat and stupid and the other runs off and then gets scared and hides for days.

We have not found anything natural that works great for fleas. I usually resort to using Frontline, but this year that didn't even work. I have food grade DE that does kill fleas (and ticks too) but you have to rub handfuls of it down into their fur so it gets to the skin. Then your animal looks like the rolled in flour! And as soon as they groom it all off, get wet, etc. then you have to reapply. It only lasted a few days on my large dogs before the fleas were back because they rolled all of the DE off in the yard.

Fleas are so frustrating, they are my least favorite part of having a pet.